NCJ Number
119413
Journal
American Journal of Law and Medicine Volume: 13 Issue: 2 & 3 Dated: (1987) Pages: 233-248
Date Published
1987
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This article argues that consciousness is the appropriate legal, constitutional, and moral standard for human personhood and points out that Roe v. Wade should have focused on consciousness, not viability, in balancing maternal and fetal rights.
Abstract
A state of permanent unconsciousness causes a loss of human personhood. There are three major clinical types of permanently unconscious patients: those in an eyes-open, persistent vegetative state; those in an eye-closed, coma state; and anencephalic infants. The state of the pre-conscious fetus is also permanent unconsciousness. Because the state of permanently unconscious individuals cannot be improved by medicine or medical treatment, they are more like the dead than the living. The moral, legal, and constitutional considerations affecting the medical care and treatment of permanently unconscious patients are discussed in detail. Those who lack consciousness and personhood also lack constitutional rights since all rights enumerated by the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights are predicated on consciousness. 45 footnotes.